Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has signed the Final Eklutna Fish and Wildlife Program to restore year-round water flows to 11 of the 12 miles of the Eklutna River.
The governor was required by a 1991 agreement to establish a final Fish and Wildlife Program for the protection, mitigation of damages to, and enhancement of fish and wildlife affected by the Eklutna Hydroelectric Project.
The agreement mandates that the governor give equal consideration to eight factors and seek to reconcile differences between the various parties subject to the Agreement.
Eklutna provides power to a large section of Anchorage and the MatSu Valley as well as most of Anchorage’s drinking water.
“In the end, the decision was the only one that made sense. The five-year process was thorough; the science, sound; the solution, complete. The governor considered every angle, including meeting with dissenting voices and giving them their fair shot to change his mind. Ultimately, though, the renewal under the owners’ plans is definitely the best solution for energy and water that comes from the Eklutna Hydro system currently,” said Rick Whitbeck, Alaska state director for Power The Future.
The Final Program signed by the governor includes, among other things:
- Construction of a new valve and release structure located adjacent to the Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility portal valve to restore year-round flow to the Eklutna River one mile downstream from the Eklutna Dam
- Automation of the existing outlet gate at the base of the spillway at Eklutna Dam for remote operation
- Development of a channel maintenance flow regime to support fish habitat over the long term
- Construction of eight new bridges for AWWU to access water pipeline infrastructure currently accessible by fording the River
- One-time payment of $234,000 for lakeside trail repairs
- Creation of a Monitoring and Adaptive Management Plan that includes the establishment of an Monitoring and Adaptive Management Committee
- Three limited reopeners for the study and potential construction of a fixed wheel gate to replace the existing overflow spillway, provisions to review fish passage alternatives, and the study of Pumped Storage Hydro that may restore fish passage
- Immediate implementation of the Final Program
- Reserving any remaining funds from the study of the fixed wheel gate for other protection, mitigation, and enhancement measures for fish and wildlife
- Addition of one more member, appointed by the Governor, to the Monitoring and Adaptive Management Committee
The Final Approved Program accepted a request by the Municipality of Anchorage and Native Village of Eklutna to include the study of the “pumped storage hydro alternative.”
The Final Program also accepted a request by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service to specify that any remaining funds from the $10 million designated for a fixed wheel gate at the Eklutna Dam be made available for additional studies or measures that protect, mitigate damage to, or enhance fish and wildlife habitat if the fixed wheel gate is determined to not be structurally or economically feasible, the Governor’s Office said.
“The Final Fish and Wildlife Program established today under the Agreement balances the eight factors I am required to consider, and the Program is designed to be an iterative one that will be able to adapt to changing conditions and technologies well before the process is required to repeat itself,” said Governor Mike Dunleavy. “I want to thank the Parties, the Native Village of Eklutna, and the members of the public who helped shape this Final Program with their time, resources, input, and participation over the past five years. This is not the end of the process, and I am committed to seeing this Final Program successfully enacted.”
Click here for the Eklutna decision document.
Electricity and water, who needs that? What will all this cost and who pays for it?
Can we redo the Dunleavy recall vote?
Dunleavy has plans to run for higher offer so this decision is part of that.
Good, now we can get our water out of Chester the Molester Creek.
Increases to my utilities as a result will be sent to the Municipality of Anchorage for removal from my property Tax. I will not pay for the stupidity of the Anchorage Assembly and their inability to understand the ramifications of this onside monstrosity. The Village of Eklutna can GTH for all I care.
Did you expect anything less out of the Cowardly Lion?
He is the epitome of what is wrong with Alaska GOP.
Hope he’s planning a life outside of Alaska. He’s burned every possible bridge here and the left will never accept him.
MA; To the contrary, he’s doing something, he is suing on behalf of foreign owned Northern Dynasty’s pebble Ltd. in the U.S District Court even after being convicted of Security’s Exchange fraud in 2023 and even after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the state’s case. So the governor of the great state of Alaska is working so hard for us and , OK, foreigners also 😉
Summarize; you may have a point though, he drifted into Alaska, he can drift back out.
What a pathetic excuse of a man.
Considering this “man” championed Nancy until he had no choice in the matter.
What’s the difference between him and Kelly Merrick? She has more integrity.
There is no ‘Eklunta Village’. They’re all almost full White and look like clowns when they have their fake pow wows. Grifters and laughable phoneys the lot of them.
A wise decision. Thankfully, special interests and woke foolishness do not – yet – control everything.
Tens of Millions for 11 miles of river for fish.. like Alaska doesnt have any other rivers suitable for spawning salmon.. Insanity equals government plus courts.
Jim, Jay and 3rd did we read the same article?
“The governor was required by a 1991 agreement to establish a final Fish and Wildlife Program for the protection, mitigation of damages to, and enhancement of fish and wildlife affected by the Eklutna Hydroelectric Project.”
Nowhere does it say that they are stopping power generation or dismantling the Eklutna Hydro plant. Instead they are going with the plan the owners/operators came up with over the last five years. A great deal here is continued studies on feasibility of pumped storage etc, fish gates and installation of valves/gates and re-evaluation in the future. The way I read this, it manifests continued operation of the plant as before, enhanced the infrastructure with added bridges and maintains drinking water access for the MOA.
The whole point of this re-authorization had to do with mitigation of fish and wildlife.
Arrgh…the last sentence should read: ………..mitigation FOR fish and wildlife!
It seems like, thus far, the majority of commentators have no idea what Dunleavy just did by thwarting the attempts of the Los Anchorage Assembly and shutter water and power from Eklutna. Instead Dunleavy has secured water and power for decades to come.
Motive, some people are just anti native corporation (Eklutna)
That’s the way i read it too
Sorry… does this effect the supply of power and water? If it does, what’s going to make up the deficit in electricity and water? Will we finally get a nuclear power plant?
Asinine. Since Anchorage will now have less electricity at a time when we’re running out of natural gas, let’s cut off Eklutna Village from power. Where in the world is Anchorage going to get fresh water? It’s time to sell the house and move somewhere else before this becomes a ghost town. Fools.
Suzanne, for those of us not dialed into all the specifics offered here- clarify, please, that the dam will remain intact? That this plan releases water one mile downstream of the dam, that will be maintained, yes?
I will have a couple of our subject experts analyze the entire decision and we’ll publish shortly on that. It’s very complicated and we are working to understand it. Thanks – sd
So who were all of the hang men posse? Or did all of the contributors other than JMark just want everything torn down? The article indicated full consideration, and considering that anchorage needs the power and water, what was the beef? They didn’t want the improvements? Glad I am not the governor. Doesn’t seem like he can satisfy anyone.
Out of curiosity, is the Eklutna tribal organization willing to also house their homeless? I see a casino is going in at Birchwood and now this dam issue… are any of the native “organizations” taking care of their homeless population? Or is it just all the hardworking white people who must pay for that too?
Way back when the Eklutna water project was first approved Anchorage was happily drinking water from numerous public and private wells within the municipality.
There wasn’t a need for the Eklutna water project.
In the decades following the project’s completion thousands of people that neve had a groundwater problem in their basements and crawl spaces began having problems, as the water table rose due to reduced drawing down by thousands of wells.
This problem was primarily in the Anchorage proper area.
Over the decades the Eklutna lakeshore became an unsightly mess as the lake level was consistently being drawn down by the water project.
The answer to the Anchorage “water shortage problem” anticipated by any reduction of allowable water from the Eklutna project is to take the public wells that are still mothballed in Anchorage and put them back online, and drill more wells,.public and private.
We never needed the Eklutna water project in the first place.
I’m a born in Anchorage lifelong Alaskan (1957) with a long memory.
Chet Showalter
Chet, it should be pointed out that back in 1960 the population of Anchorage was 44,237 (source MOA history) and 1970 only saw an increase of a little more than 4500 inhabitants to 48,801. However the population of Anchorage today is 284,469. While I can see that the water table can reliably provide water for the city of the 1970s and 80s, I am not certain that the same is true today, considering the high density of housing and businesses drawing from the same aquifers. Could the existing wells provide some relief if needed, certainly after some thorough analysis of existing water quality, but replacing the entire output of Eklutna lake seems doubtful.
Correct, these incompetent decision makers are ruining a valuable.resource that has paid for itself and been an asset to over a quarter million Alaskans.
The RIGHT solution would have been do nothing. “Stakeholders” who had not one bit of legal right to weigh in got brought in and here we are. $60M to make the first modification step to a horribly expensive pumped storage facility that Alaska, nor all of Americans can afford. This little stream will only make habitat for 1000 maximum measly fish annually. Half need escapement. Over a ten year period this makes for about $19,000 a FISH!
Opinions aside, this is one insanely expensive joke on rate and taxpayers. Completely irresponsible to the point of malfeasance.
There was no option of “doing nothing”.
The 1991 agreement REQUIRED an environmental review AND a plan for mitigation efforts. In my reading the governor went with MEA and Chugach’s plan and included the option for limited studies of the pumped storage, fixed wheel gate, fish passage etc. To my understanding there are NO concrete plans to change the existing infrastructure of the dam. The modifications of another valve, it appears, are to allow small amount of water to escape to the river at the same place AWWU has already accessed, instead of demolishing the entire dam, which is what the assembly and Eklutna wanted.
In my opinion the governor’s first priority was to keep the dam and the hydro plant operating for another 30 some years and fulfilling the the requirements of the 1991 agreement for environmental mitigation. He met that priority. Including studies for this or that was the price to pay. It allowed the MOA and Eklutna to crow about victory without actually doing any damage to the power generation or water supply of Anchorage and the Valley.
Agreed… And we will never be able to go back to a system that is inexpensive to maintain and has paid for itself. This new system is to the detriment of our local society.
Honestly, I don’t see what everyone’s problem is. Seems like a good solution. The dam and powerplant stay and they work to bring back salmon. Whats the issue?
This will only hurt Alaskans. The system worked perfectly fine, the power and water have been cheap and benefitted “The majority of Alaskans in the largest City” that’s gone now. You can bet you will pay higher energy bills thanks to everyone from the environmentalists, the tribe, the city assembly, mayor, representatives and the Governor. People have no idea how negative and costly this will be to the State, and every person who gets water and pays energy bills.
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